Resort Thread Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE Resort

[Sue M]

Regardless of what you were told, it is a common myth that Alligator Bayou rooms are reserved ONLY for groups of five. Obviously those bookings are given first priority for AB rooms (as the mansion buildings cannot accommodate that party size at all) but it is very rare that more than about 20%-30% of reservations at any one time are for groups of five. And since there are twice as many rooms in those sixteen AB Lodges as there are in the two regular mansion buildings (although Preferred Location bookings do account for a proportion of the AB area) the resort would be left with a lot of empty rooms in AB if that section was restricted for five people only.

A bigger problem with simple requests (especially those made in advance and not faxed) is that they are almost always left to be fulfilled by the Ready Room allocation system just before you arrive, rather than being pre-blocked in advance. This can mean that they may be more difficult to match at the last minute from whatever is available when the resort is fairly full (and especially for later arrivals, when most rooms will already be occupied). But it never hurts to ask them to check again when you arrive, as your initial room allocation may have been made several hours earlier, and a new set of rooms might now be available for them to check.

Andre

Interesting info! I didn't know that if you have a request(s) noted on res but haven't faxed they aren't pre blocked. I wonder if this is true of all resorts? POR is the only resort I fax. I'm not even sure other resorts accept faxes anymore.

 

[andrewilley]

Interesting info! I didn't know that if you have a request(s) noted on res but haven't faxed they aren't pre blocked.

They may not even pre-block if you do fax. If they pre-block, you won't be able to get your room until it has been vacated and cleaned, so if it's a simple request they often leave it to be picked up by the Ready Room system anyway to provide greater flexibility. Pre-blocking is mostly used for more complex or medical requests, multiple-room bookings, continuing reservations, etc. A single room with "upper floor Alligator Bayou" requested is unlikely to get blocked out in advance.

Andre

 

[piglet1979]

Do you know when the June activity Calendar will come out?

 

[andrewilley]

Do you know when the June activity Calendar will come out?

On the 1st of June. Sometimes I get sent a copy a few days in advance though, so keep an eye on the website.

Andre

 

[piglet1979]

On the 1st of June. Sometimes I get sent a copy a few days in advance though, so keep an eye on the website.

Andre

Thank you

 

[AngiTN]

Hello all! Can anyone tell me, based on what they've heard, the success rate of requesting a room in AB vs MB? Just booking a standard or garden view, not preferred, not pool view, not royal, no 5th person. Basically, all other things being equal, how likely is it that, if I request the mansions, I'll get the mansions? Thanks!

ETA: I guess I'm looking for anecdotes from those who haven't gotten their preferred section, and what reason, if any, was given.

It was just DH and I. We had 2 separate reservations last trip. 1 night pool view and 5 nights King. We got an AB room for 1 night and a room in the mansion the other night. I did request the Mansions for both but really didn't care much what the single night ended up being. The 5 night stay was exactly what I requested, river view in the mansion

I have always sent a fax to room assignors with my requests. The POR thread on page 1 has info on fax number.


I think all AB rooms have Murphy beds. We prefer the mansion side so I've never stayed on AB side. What keeps me coming back is the beautiful grounds & theming, boat to Disney Springs, good food court, Bob Jacksons show, and atmosphere of resort. Love seeing the horse & carriages going by at night.

I've stayed on both sides and love them both. I believe all AB rooms have murphy beds, but I kind of liked it. I just used it to set things on. There are also two drawers underneath if you need them.

The room we had in AB did not have a Murphy bed. I later learned it must have been a handicapped room but the odd part about that is it was on 2nd floor and did not have a roll in shower. So I guess it was some sort of hybrid room

Does anyone know the typical bus route? Does it go clockwise or counterclockwise? Is the first bus depot pick up the West, North, East or South depot stop?

As best as I recall the first stop varied by what park.

 

[andrewilley]

The room we had in AB did not have a Murphy bed. I later learned it must have been a handicapped room but the odd part about that is it was on 2nd floor and did not have a roll in shower. So I guess it was some sort of hybrid room

As best as I recall the first stop varied by what park.

Did you ever let us know the room number of that AB room without the murphy bed, just so I can check it on my list?

And the buses almost all go West>North>East>South now, see www.portorleans.org/buses.php. The only exception is Disney Springs which stops at South first.

Andre

 

[takumi]

IMO it's easy to take monorail or boat from Poly to MK, then transfer to POR bus. Only thing I hate is new location of POR bus stop all the way at the end of middle island past all 3 AllStar bus stops. No idea why they did this. Truly awful. In old bus loop POR stop was way closer.

If DHS is open you could take DHS bus from Poly and use that as transfer point. Or walk to TTC to get monorail to Epcot to transfer. So many options!

thanks for the info, i didn't consider those other options!

 

[AngiTN]

Did you ever let us know the room number of that AB room without the murphy bed, just so I can check it on my list?

And the buses almost all go West>North>East>South now, see www.portorleans.org/buses.php. The only exception is Disney Springs which stops at South first.

Andre

Sorry, I didn't notice anyone asked.
It was 3939, 2nd floor Building 39

 

[andrewilley]

Sorry, I didn't notice anyone asked.
It was 3939, 2nd floor Building 39

Interesting, I've got that listed as a 'Florida Special' Pool View room. I thought that should mean extra features such as grab rails and visible alarms for the hard of hearing, but I didn't think it would have had the full open-plan bathroom/toilet area with a single door separating that area from the beds area (which is the configuration that normally forces the removal of the extra fold-down bed).

Andre

 

[Amy M]

Are there ice makers in all of the AB buildings?

 

[AngiTN]

Interesting, I've got that listed as a 'Florida Special' Pool View room. I thought that should mean extra features such as grab rails and visible alarms for the hard of hearing, but I didn't think it would have had the full open-plan bathroom/toilet area with a single door separating that area from the beds area (which is the configuration that normally forces the removal of the extra fold-down bed).

Andre

Yes, it did have that type of bath room. And I do remember there being handrails by the toilet, but a regular tub.
The handrails stuck out to be because it was a 2nd floor room. Obviously someone mobility impaired couldn't get up there with just stairs. It made me wonder if all their bathrooms had them, for some reason.
It may have had visible alarms, I didn't notice one way or the other.

 

[andrewilley]

Are there ice makers in all of the AB buildings?

Yes, centrally located on both floors (there are snack vending machines there too).

Andre

 

[Amy M]

Yes, centrally located on both floors (there are snack vending machines there too).

Andre

Perfect...thanks!!!

 

[jenkel]

We are going with a almost 2 by sept, we are requesting a pack n play, but will they put us in a room with the pull down bed? (He may want to sleep in that)

 

[andrewilley]

We are going with a almost 2 by sept, we are requesting a pack n play, but will they put us in a room with the pull down bed? (He may want to sleep in that)

You've got something like a 50/50 chance. It's worth putting in a request for an Alligator Bayou room if that's what you'd prefer anyway.

Andre

 

[Barbanellie]

Just got back home from our 9-night stay at POR. A few random thoughts to share with you guys:

We had requested AB with our reservation. At online check-in, I asked for highest floor, corner room. I sent a fax a few days before (after bugging everyone here about it!) asking for a room in AB in a quiet section similar to 3805, which we had the last time. We checked-in at the resort around 2PM, and our room wasn't ready yet. We hung around the resort enjoying the Florida warmth and sunshine until I got an e-mail saying our room was ready, probably around 3PM. We got room 3860, so almost exactly my requests. It wasn't exactly in as quiet a location as 3805, as there was a pathway on that side, and a few maintenance vehicles would drive by there during the day, but being on the 2nd floor it was extremely quiet, so we were happy with the location.

Sad that the AB beds no longer have the alligator pillow, I really missed it.

Mousekeeping did a fantastic job throughout our stay, although we're not very difficult customers, so maybe it was just easier

Had great food and service at the Riverside Mill. Except this morning, when there were huuuuuuuge lines for only two open registers (7:30 AM), and then they had to close one because the CM working it had to take care of a lost little boy. They opened up more registers in a few minutes, but for a few awkward moments, everyone was grumbling in that single gigantic line.

Boat to Disney Springs is much easier now that it doesn't stop at FQ in the busy evenings.

Had an OK experience with the buses to the parks. We were never in any hurry at all, but sometimes I wonder if they have an actual Disney dispatch handling which buses go where, or if it's a machine. These things would often make no sense. Like waiting for a MK bus for 20 minutes, and seeing 5 DHS buses come and go before MK, literally 5. We also had long waits at both water parks, for some reason. At BB, the nice man working there had to call a bus because we'd been waiting for so long.

The screens for the bus times were basically useless, at North Depot anyway. Buses would get there whenever, with no visible link to the times shown. There was never any time shown for MK or Epcot. It was really random, and we just sat there and waited for whenever the bus would show up, as wew did in 2014 before the screens. I'm thinking this might be because it's a work-in-progress. One day we went to FQ and caught the bus there, and it seemed to match almost to the minute the time on the screen. Or maybe that was a coincidence.

We walked between FQ and POR three times while staying in POR. Once for breakfast, to try it out (enjoyed the make-your-own breakfast bowl), once to get ice cream cookie sandwiches before heading to MK for the evening (my goodness, those things are HUGE!) and once when returning from AK and our bus stopped at FQ first, we got off there, bought beignets and walked back to POR. LOVED the beignets! Mr. Barbanellie has decided that our next trip to WDW (whenever that may be) will be at FQ. I think the ice cream and the beignets won him over!

That's about it. We had a wonderful time, and are not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow...

 

[Sue M]

Barbanelle thanks for your review. Glad you enjoyed your stay and got room requests. I think the POR room assignors are the best.
That bus situation has happened to me once or more, at every resort I've stayed at. You can count on one morning where 5 of every bus but yours goes by. Deluxe or moderate. No difference.

 

[keahgirl8]

I think the beignets are worth it-plus it's a very nice walk over.

Has anyone had beignets in New Orleans and the POFQ beignets? I wonder how they compare.

Regardless of what you were told, it is a common myth that Alligator Bayou rooms are reserved ONLY for groups of five. Obviously those bookings are given first priority for AB rooms (as the mansion buildings cannot accommodate that party size at all) but it is very rare that more than about 20%-30% of reservations at any one time are for groups of five. And since there are twice as many rooms in those sixteen AB Lodges as there are in the two regular mansion buildings (although Preferred Location bookings do account for a proportion of the AB area) the resort would be left with a lot of empty rooms in AB if that section was restricted for five people only.

A bigger problem with simple requests (especially those made in advance and not faxed) is that they are almost always left to be fulfilled by the Ready Room allocation system just before you arrive, rather than being pre-blocked in advance. This can mean that they may be more difficult to match at the last minute from whatever is available when the resort is fairly full (and especially for later arrivals, when most rooms will already be occupied). But it never hurts to ask them to check again when you arrive, as your initial room allocation may have been made several hours earlier, and a new set of rooms might now be available for them to check.

Andre

Exactly! It's just little old me, and I'm allowed to be in AB!

Sad that the AB beds no longer have the alligator pillow, I really missed it.

Strange. I could swear I had one in February. Have they taken them out since then?

 

[Barbanellie]

Strange. I could swear I had one in February. Have they taken them out since then?

Well, I didn't ask about it, but we didn't have one, and I happened to look into an empty room through the window one morning, and they didn't have them either, so I assumed they had decided to remove them.